Forum Messages

I am looking for an inlet manifold from a Ford Capri V4. Anyone have one for sale or knows where I can get one?

13/06/2003 13:09:28

Senor Burt

The Ford Capri V4 is a totally different engine to that fitted to the SAAB V4's. The Capri/Transit/Corsair was the British 'Essex" V4. The SAAb engine is a (obviously superior)German V4 very similar to the 2.3 and 2.8 V6 engines. As far as I know there is no parts interchange between the two V4's. I would suggest a vintage Ford specialist. Try the ads in Classic Ford magazine or similar.

13/06/2003 13:57:09

Nick

I realised as soon as I put the message up. Trying to learn quickly about squeezing more ooomph out of the standard V4 block and I keep getting given conflicting info and advice. I would ideally like to drop a larger block in but this is proving rather difficult to source anything to fit. Might just resign myself to the fact that my 96 is never going to be a rocket.

16/06/2003 08:01:50

Richard

New 1700 cranks are availible in Germany, rods from the German V6 fit and are beefer ( Scorpio's even more so ), ARP bolts are available from Burtons along with high pressure oil pump. Kent cams will grind a V6 profile on a V4, V6 larger valves fit ( just check the height ). To get 1815cc fit 93mm V6 or pinto pistons (may need to machine piston tops. As you can see all the bottom end stuff is available. Top end is nothing too special as long as you are not building a full spec engine. To put rocket into context my rally car at testing this weekend was turning the same lap times as a Dax Rush 4wd 300bhp turbo (lotus Seven lookalike).

16/06/2003 12:55:05

Richard

The best options for a twin carb set up is weber 45'sas you are on the max chokes (36 or 35) in a 40 on 1815cc, which does not flow as well as a 36 choke in the larger 45 body. You can use 40's for low-mid range (down choked) in a 1815cc or use them for the smaller capacity. The weber 45 takes a larger range of useful chokes for the given engine capacity ie 38 for high revs. A 48 setup could be used for a high reving 1850cc unit.

22/06/2003 16:42:19

jake

speed? at 65 mph your saab will be just as fast as any other car doing 65mph even a ferrari! but will they look as good i wouldnt spend a lot of time loking for perfomance parts that are almost impossable to find and nearly allways start a chain reaction of further searches and what about reliablity i shuder at the thought of trying to squese a lot of extra power out of a thirty year old engine i love the waves and flashes from other motorists and pedestrians and no one has ever gave me any grief when traveling at 50-60mph one open roads i go for looks and comfort any time all the best jake

23/06/2003 12:45:50

Richard

My rally car has done 3 and bit full seasons of rallying, it produces 147BHP and the engine has been 100pc reliable. If you build the engine correctly using new parts where required and crack test etc recondition old re-used parts, you should have an engine that is like new not a 100 000 mile std engine running on naff bearings like most v4's. The 4 bolt inlet is not rare and as I have said before all the other bits for the bottom end can be purchased new. Its each to there own, my hillclimb/sprint car looks std, but is running full rally spec under the skin. The rally car looks like a rally car and my road car is mildly tuned so it goes up hills etc. I have restored a few cars now a find competition tuning an interesting science, it takes the restoration to another level in which you need to know alot more about your car.

26/06/2003 12:10:19

Alistair Philpott

Agreed! Remember if you just want a bit more umph for a road car without extensive mods, you can easily get a 20%+ increase in power from carb, exhaust & cam. Just don't come running to me for new timing gears ;-)

26/06/2003 13:07:30

Richard

The other option to what Alistair said is to forget the cam, port th head slightly and match all port areas. If you dont go over the top with the porting you should have a drivable car that may only loose a little on the bottom end. This is the cheap and time consuming way, but as you are running on std cam and valve springs you lower the risk of over reving. Anything over a fast road cam will be hell on the road and I would say someone who is sharting rallying should not use anything above this until they can use the power. Please note Colin Wallace only uses the std cam in his rally car with ported heads. Timing gears- the set with a nylon gear (later type) is OK for medium revs 6000-6500(suits big engine) otherwise you are on to steel or steel with alloy cam gear.